Dax looked down at the woman. The stress of being dismantled into tiny particles and then put back together again had been too much for her body and she had fainted. When they had rematerialized on the Starship he had placed her in a private room laid out in one of the pull down beds. He tried to make her as comfortable as possible. Now that he could get a closer look, he understood why Fex had chosen her. She was truly exquisite with darker skin than he'd ever seen and a mouth that was full, the top being ever so slightly fuller than the bottom. Dax could feel his cock swell as he looked at that mouth. Dax touched her hair. She had long soft, curls that felt like silk between his finger tips.
"Are you finished in there?" he heard a loud voice come from the wall. Dax looked over at the video intercom. Fex was watching him. Dax untangled his fingers from her hair.
"She fought," he said loud enough for Fex to hear him.
"Thank you for stating the obvious," Fex replied. He was in the main control room setting the computer up to transport them into space, and towards the Rean galaxy.
"We should take her back. She is not a willing Tithe."
There was silence and Dax looked up to see what Fex's reaction was. Fex was sitting still, too still, at the controls. When he spoke his voice was very,
very
calm.
"How long have we been exiled from home, Dax?"
"Almost six years."
"That's right. Six years is more than enough punishment, do you not agree?"
Dax said nothing. Fex turned and pinned him with a stare.
"Do you not agree?"
"I agree with you, sir"
"It would not be good for us to spend even one more day away from home would it?"
"No, sir."
"And if that bitch is our ticket back into the Rean Court than it really does not matter what she thinks does it?"
"No, sir"
Fex smiled, but that didn't fully erase the homicidal glint in his eye.
"Besides, when she finds herself thousands of light years away from everything she has ever known she will be begging us to take care of her."
His smile was sincere now as they jerked into hyperspace.
"Sedate her," he ordered. "I don't want her waking up until we are home."
*****
Ilaria felt heavy, overly tired. She tried to open her eyes but they were weighed down as if there was something heavy laid over them. She started to lift her hand to remove whatever lay over her face but at the sound of voices she stopped. Everything came rushing back to her. The crazy men in the parking lot, the flashing light and then that terrible feeling. Bile rose in Ilaria's throat, she had never felt anything like that before.
The voices were getting closer. One was female and the other was male. They were speaking in a language she had never heard before. It was full of clipped sounds almost like Cantonese. She wished she could understand what they were saying. Maybe then she could figure out what the hell was going on.
*****
"Where is she from again? Yert?"
"No, Amani. Earth. It's an extremely primitive planet. They don't even do casual intergalactic travel."
"How do they visit other worlds?"
"They don't"
"Ugh, how boring that must be, to be trapped on the same boring world day in, day out. No wonder you guys wanted to come back so badly."
Dax looked at his little sister Amani. She had changed a lot over the last six years, she was no longer the awkward youth he remembered. Amani was now a grown woman. One thing that hadn't changed however was her love of dangerous situations. His parents had fretted over Amani as she grew up. She wasn't submissive and docile like the women of Rea tended to be. Amani hadn't wanted to settle with a husband and have children, she had opted instead to become a privateer of goods and explore the worlds. Her warehouse station on the outer rim planet, Little Rune, was the first stop he and Fex had made once they entered the Rean Galaxy. True to her adventurous nature, Amani had accepted two fugitives of the Court, and an unknown alien into her home without batting an eyelash.
Dax would never have endangered his sister with his presence but they were only on the outer rim of the planets that made up the Rean galaxy. There were no royal guards to recognize him and Fex here.
"You say she has skin the color of Emiz drink?" Amani eyed the couch where the woman lay. Before Fex left to scrounge up a counterfeit identity for their guest, the two men had transferred her to the small trailer where his sister lived.
"Yes, brown like that but a little more golden than pure Emiz."
"I wanna see..."
"Amani!"
Dax stopped his sister from pulling down the thick yellow blanket that completely covered the girl.
"What?" she snapped at him. "You said she's asleep."
"Yes, but not for long. She should wake in about thirty minutes. Before that happens I need to fit her with a language simulator chip. I don't need you jostling her around."
Dax reached for the blanket but no sooner had he touched it when a scream came from beneath it and the blanket flew at him in a yellow blur.
*****
